Vision for downtown Wheaton includes festival streets and a central park

November 12, 2013|By Quan Truong, Chicago Tribune reporter

From festival streets with outdoor dining to a central park with an amphitheater and ice skating rink, consultants unveiled their proposed grand plan for downtown Wheaton this week.

The final draft of the downtown strategic plan and streetscape plan was presented at Monday night's planning session, detailing a number of ways to spur development in the city's core.

"It's not just adding more people and adding more shops, but adding the right kinds of amenities and design and adding the right kind of look and feel to downtown," said Britt Palmberg, project manager from Design Workshop, which has been working on the plan for two years.

He listed a number of "catalyst improvements" which he said would stir economic activity in the downtown corridor.

Some of the key ideas in the plan included the creation of "festival streets," along Liberty, Hale and Karlskoga streets, which would feature more outdoor dining and can easily be closed off from motorists to be converted into a plaza for festivals and community gatherings.

The plan also proposes a "central park," along Liberty Drive and the Illinois Prairie Path between Hale and Cross, which would include a permanent structure for the French Market.

Jim Kozik, director of planning and development, told council members that it would be designed to be dual purpose and would allow for parking during the day and then be used as a market or for special events on the weekends.

"There's opportunity to really bolster and leverage the power of the market and make it more notable here in the western suburbs," Palmberg said.

The proposed central park also features a small amphitheater, an ice skating rink, open park spaces and fountains.

Other suggestions included improvements to Main Street, south of the train tracks, to take advantage of the new traffic coming in to the Mariano's, which opened last month off Roosevelt Road, at the site of the former Hubble Middle School. Consultants also recommended upgrading lighting, street trees, signs, bike paths and alleys.

If the city were to implement all of the changes, it is estimated to cost roughly $64.5 million. The first phase, which includes the festival streets, central park and upgrades to South Main, would cost about $16 million.

"You don't have to do every little thing in here and you'd still have a petty noticeable change in downtown Wheaton," Palmberg said.

Mayor Mike Gresk called it a blueprint for the city over the next 15 to 20 years.

"Money is where it's at. We'd like to do all of this tomorrow, but that's not going to happen," he said.

Kozik pointed out that the city not only has to carefully plan how to finance it, but also how to construct it.

"You don't want to destroy the downtown as you're trying to save it," he said. "You want to implement these projects and phase them in a way where the actual construction won't be a detriment."

Council members appeared to support the ideas in the plan. Councilwoman Evelyn Pacing Sanguinity called it exciting and said, "I love this entire plan."

"I like the ideas here. The question for council is how we'll be able to finance it," said Councilman John Prendiville. "I think that a big thing I think about, with respect to this, is that we want our downtown to be attractive. It's a marketing thing for future residents of the city. We want to continue to support home values."

A public hearing on the plan will be held later this year before council votes on it. For more information, visit the city's website at wheaton.il.us.